KATELYN WU & MOULIK BUDHIRAJA

she/her, he/him | ages 18 & 17 | Waterloo, ON

Platinum Award, Gold Excellence Award, Youth Can Innovate Grand Award, Digital Technology Challenge Award, and S.M. Blair Family Foundation Award, Canada Wide Science Fair 2023

Edited by Jordan Epp

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introduction

The World Health Organization estimates there to be over 280 million visually impaired people (Figure 1), with the global blind population increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 3.73% while the world population is growing at 1.16% (Thinkerbell Labs, 2023). Braille is a form of written language where characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that can be read by the fingertips (Figure 2). For those who are blind, braille is the only form of literacy available and can provide equal access to written word as sighted individuals. As a form of liberation and empowerment, braille allows the visually impaired to continue living a life of enrichment, intellectual freedom, independence and equal opportunities.

**Figure 1:** A depiction of the estimated global distribution of the visually impaired population (Thinkerbell Labs, 2023).

**Figure 2:** The grade one braille alphabet system, developed by Louis Braille in 1824. (Canada Science and Technology Museum, n.d).

Problem
Braille literacy rates worldwide are alarmingly low, with only 10% of the visually impaired population in North America being braille-educated and much less in other areas (Thinkerbell Labs, 2023). Tutoring costs can accumulate up to 6,000 CAD per year (Farrow, 2015) or more, and current market solutions targeting braille education are scarce, inefficient, high-cost, and unsuitable for self-learning. Examples of current braille teaching tools include braille learning kits that lack user guidance and independence. Braille typing machines are available for the visually impaired but cost thousands of dollars and are not targeted toward new braille users. The correlation between literacy and employment is apparent, with 75% of all illiterate individuals on government assistance (The Literacy Project, 2019). The need to increase accessible braille education worldwide is clear and urgent.

Purpose
The project aims to take a novel approach to braille education by creating an innovative device that allows visually impaired individuals to self-learn braille effectively while maximizing independence. The project’s ultimate goal is to fight the global braille literacy crisis by using a low-cost approach to promote accessibility for the visually impaired population.

MATERIALS & METHODS

Materials used in the final prototype include one ESP32 development board, two breadboards, one DC female plug, one 12V DC power supply, two 3D-printed braille disks and a 3D printed motor mount (made using standard PLA plastic), male-to-male jumper wires, three LEDs (red, green, blue), three 100K Ohm resistors, two 10K Ohm resistors, two 28BYJ-48 stepper motors and ULN2003A driver boards, one USB-A to micro-USB cable, and two buttons.

The Prototype
The final revision of the prototype features a dual motor design where each motor rotates an octagonal 3D-printed disk (Figures 3-4). The disks mirror each other, with each face displaying one of eight possible combinations of three raised dots and blank spaces. The dots on the faces count upwards in binary around the disk, with blank spaces and raised dots representing 0 and 1, respectively.

Each of these motors is controlled by a ULN2003A transistor array, linked to an ESP32 orchestrating their movements. The device includes a female barrel plug to accept a 12-volt 3-amp power input, a requirement to drive the stepper motors with sufficient torque.

To improve convenience and safety, two buttons are used - one resets the internal position of the stepper motors and the other acts as an emergency shutoff for the motors. Each button makes use of a 10k Ohm pull-down resistor. To further increase safety, the prototype features three status LEDs. Two of these LEDs indicate the presence of power, while the third signals the activation of the emergency motor shutoff. Each LED also requires its own 100K Ohm resistor.

A USB-A to micro-USB cable and jumper wires are also required to make connections to and within the device, respectively.

**Figure 3:** Final revision of the prototype featuring octagonal disks and motors displaying the braille cell.

**Figure 4:** Wiring diagram displaying the positions of electronic parts in the final prototype.

Embedded Software
The device consistently monitors the serial port for a new target position. Each braille character can be represented by a 6-bit binary integer. With the disks’ design, this integer can be directly mapped to a target position, with the first 3 bits representing the dots on the first disk and the last three dots on the second.

As the design uses stepper motors to control the rotation of the disks, the microcontroller is responsible for tracking the current motor positions represented in the number of steps relative to when the device was turned on or last reset.

Upon receiving a new target position, the microcontroller splits it into its individual 3-bit components for the two disks. The position must also be scaled from 0-7 to 0-2047 to align it with the operation period of the stepper motors. Next, the system determines the shortest route to the target position by calculating the clockwise and counter-clockwise distances. Depending on its direction, the shorter of these two distances is added or subtracted from the current position to obtain the closest absolute target position. Finally, the stepper motors are rotated to match this newly established position.

Server
With the current version of the program, an intermediary server is required to facilitate communication between the client and the device. It must be run locally as an independent program. The server offers multiple endpoints to set a character on the device, most notably, ‘set-letter’ and ‘set-position.’

The ‘set-letter’ endpoint accepts any lowercase letter from the English alphabet, maps it to an integer representing the braille character for the letter, and subsequently sends it to the device through the serial connection. The ‘set-position’ endpoint directly forwards the provided integer to the device.

Training Program
The training program, developed using React, offers two training modes: “Character Introduction” and “Character Recognition.”

In “Character Introduction,” the programming sequentially displays the letters from ‘a’ to ‘z’ on the device. As each letter appears, it is also spoken to the user using text-to-speech. Conversely, “Character Recognition” (Figure 5) presents characters randomly from a smaller subset of the alphabet. The user is prompted to input the displayed letter into the device verbally. If the user is correct, the process repeats with a new character. If incorrect, the user is given another chance to determine the character. After two incorrect guesses, the user is verbally informed of the correct character before moving on to a new one. As the user becomes more proficient in identifying characters, the subset expands to include more. The program also keeps track of the letters the user has the most difficulty identifying and will present these letters more often.

**Figure 5:** Interface during training mode, an interactive method of learning utilizing the Cognitive Load Theory and skill tracker.

Audience Testing
To assess the effectiveness of the innovation in comparison to current market implementations, the device was experimentally tested using non-braille literate participants. The control group of three students learned braille using a traditional kit (Figure 6), while the experimental group (Figure 7) of four students learned braille utilizing the prototype. Both audiences were blindfolded and given ten minutes to learn as many braille characters as possible. Test participants were only assigned to one group, either the control or the experimental group. No participant was exposed to any braille prior to the experiment. Upon completion of the given learning period of ten minutes, participants were tested on their ability to identify the randomly ordered twenty-six letters of the alphabet. The accuracy scores from each group were averaged and compared.

**Figure 6:** Photograph of traditional braille kit used by participants in the control group.

**Figure 7:** Photograph taken during audience testing, displaying a participant from the experimental group learning braille using the project’s device.

RESULTS

Results from the experiment were used to assess and determine the effectiveness of two different braille learning methods: a traditional kit versus the device. The level of accuracy with which participants could correctly identify randomly generated characters after the given learning period was used as an indicator to reflect the effectiveness of the braille learning tool. Data collected by control and experimental group participants were analyzed and processed. The control group correctly identified a mean of 4.3 characters out of 26 with a standard deviation of 2.1 letters after the ten-minute learning period. In the same ten-minute learning frame, the experimental group correctly identified 8.8 characters out of 26 with a standard deviation of 3.4 letters.

DISCUSSION

Upon analysis of the results, it appears that the project’s innovation is more effective at teaching braille than current market solutions. The data indicates the experimental group to be over twice as accurate as the control group, suggesting that the experimental learning method is more effective than the control method. Users are able to learn more characters through the project’s device in the same period, in comparison to traditional methods. In addition, the device is affordable as it does not cost more than 25 CAD to make (Figure 7), which makes braille education more accessible in comparison to current market solutions costing thousands. With the innovation’s effective training program, low cost and user independence, the device shows promise in its ability to tackle the global braille literacy crisis.

**Table 1:** Cost chart of final prototype components.

Next steps include audience testing with truly visually impaired participants as opposed to blindfolded individuals. Results from these trials may differ from previous experiments, and feedback collected from consulting the target demographic will be of value. A larger pool of participants would also allow for more powerful statistical analysis to further prove the device’s superiority over traditional learning methods. Regarding device improvements, using a more powerful microcontroller and microphone will allow for a self-contained unit. Additionally, the octagon disks and algorithm can be adapted to function in 8-dot braille instead of the current 6-dot braille edition, creating options for other languages. Finally, using the concept of multiple disks can allow for the display of multiple braille cells rather than the current single-cell display.

CONCLUSION

The project’s device allows users to learn braille successfully in an independent manner. The device is interactive and does not burden its users economically. As a result, the innovation is more accessible than current market solutions and is experimentally proven to be more effective. The innovation shows potential as a promising solution to mitigate the braille literacy problem. The global visually impaired population would greatly benefit from the project’s creation, especially those transitioning from sight to blindness or who are not braille literate. The device will assist visually impaired individuals through braille education in order to unlock independence, intellectual freedom and empowerment.

REFERENCES

Canada Science and Technology Museum. (n.d.) Braille. Retrieved April 21, 2023, from https://ingeniumcanada.org/scitech/education/try-this-out/braille

Farrow, K. (2015). Practice Perspectives. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness. Retrieved December 26, 2022, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1114495.pdf

The Literacy Project. (2019). Illiteracy by the Numbers. Literacy Project Foundation. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://literacyproj.org/

Thinkerbell Labs. (2023). The Need. Thinkerbell. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://www.thinkerbelllabs.com/need

World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean. (2012). WHO releases new global estimates on visual impairment. World Health Organization. Retrieved April 8, 2023, from https://www.emro.who.int/control-and-preventions-of-blindness-and-deafness/announcements/global-estimates-on-visual-impairment.html

Reinventing Education: Tackling the Global Braille Literacy Crisis